The Squamidian Report - Dec. 21/02

HI All

Hard to believe it's winter now on the calendar, that means the days will start getting longer again. I have no idea where the time went. This past year has been a blur of activity and change. And of course, every time I look up from whatever I'm doing I get distracted by the scenery.

Sue was in Calgary this week so that left Ryan, the dogs and me on our own. Ryan spends his spare time on the computer, sleeping or on the phone to Emily, or maybe to their guinea pigs. They have a herd of them in their apartment.

I spent Monday giving Warren a hand. He needed a pine limb, nicely twisted and misshapen that he could power wash. We worked our way up the mountain behind his place in the pouring rain and found a ridge where the trees are growing out of the rock. They are not growing well at all as the bare rock gives little nourishment and the wind batters them. We cut a test branch and then I had to wrestle it down to the logging road. Warren went the other way as he had cut a Christmas tree for themselves and his best route was to backtrack.

Anyway, to get this limb down I had to toss it over the cliff, find a way down then drag in on down through the trees. The only direction you can go in this terrain is down. There are places that you just let go of the limb and work your way down, then find the limb again. By the time I got down to the logging road I was wetter under my rain suit from sweat than I would have been if I hadn't warn it. If his project goes through, we will need about 75 or 80 large limbs from up there. That would keep us out of mischief for a while.

Wednesday we decided to have a boy’s night out so Ryan, Warren and I drove in to North Van to see the new Star Trek movie. When we got there we found the movie was cancelled as they were having projector problems in that room. We saw the new James Bond instead. It was pretty good. Warren, being the back country local yokel that he is, was on the edge of his seat all the way through it.

To see a show, we have to drive to the city. Squamish doesn’t have a theater yet but there is one planned for in a new shopping center that's in the works. This town could use some new development to help it move forward.

The drive in along Howe Sound was spectacular as usual, but always different. There was heavy cloud cover but the sun was shining through a hole, illuminating the water in front of Anvil Island. The sea was silver with the bright gold glow around the island. If we had taken a picture, it would have looked like we somehow changed the colours. Really cool.

And speaking of rubbing your nose in our scenery, you should have seen the mountains Friday night. The nearly full moon was shining on then and they glowed. There is just no way to describe it without sounding mushy or something. I'm including a picture of the mountains to the west with the moon over then, taken this morning. It can only pretend to catch the beauty.

I guess the Christmas tree battle is a tie. Sue found a 7' artificial tree while shopping at the Bay in West Van. We are setting it up in the alcove off the kitchen over looking the deck. It would be too small to stand in the living room unless it was about 10' taller.

From Guest Columnist Sue.

Hi guys, well it's great to finally be home for two weeks in a row, now I can get ready for Christmas. As Doug mentioned, the war is over however I sure you all knew that I would win.... cause Doug's idea of a 3' green stick with permanent decorations just didn't make sense to anyone but him.

Did you notice the good planning.... Calgary and no sales tax?? All three Auditor's suitcases were a lot fuller on the way back.

Doug has been keeping the bird feeder stocked up so we are getting lots of feathered friends. The Bald Eagles should be coming back in great numbers this month as Squamish is the winter home of the biggest number of them anywhere in North America.

From Guest Columnist Ryan.

Hello every. I am supposed to wish everyone a Merry Christmas so here I go: Hahaha, you have snow!!! (Merry Christmas!)

This is the picture of the mountains to the west with the moon still up.

This is a zoom in on Alfa peak with the sun just catching the tops as it rises.